Museum Ovartaci

Museum Ovartaci is named after Louis Marcussen, the painter and sculptor known as Ovartaci, who lived as a patient at the psychiatric hospital in Risskov for 56 years, from 1929 until his death in 1985. His work is central to the exhibition, which combines art with the history of psychiatric treatment.

The museum holds about 12,000 works by psychiatric patients, of which around 850 are on display. It suits visitors drawn to art made outside the mainstream as much as those curious about how psychiatric care has changed. The museum also runs social programmes for psychiatric patients, including an open atelier and creative workshops.

Founded in 1921, it was part of Aarhus University Hospital and occupied the same buildings as the Psychiatric Hospital in Risskov. That hospital opened in 1852 as the Jutish Asylum (Jydske Asyl) in buildings designed by Michael Gottlieb Bindesbøll. The museum is now on Olof Palmes Alle in northern Aarhus.